Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Newest Bengal Legend from the ISU Upset of UCLA is......Jeff Balmer?

There are great names in Idaho State's athletic history ... Mike Machurek...Jared Allen....Steve Hayes....Les Roh....Natalie Doma...well, now the fans can add the name Jeff Balmer to the mix. Did he ever play at Idaho State? That would be no...and that's good, because Jeff's contribution to ISU athletics is greater than being a player.

About six months ago, Jeff got in contact with me, and sent me a DVD of the 1977 Idaho State/UCLA game. Now, it's pretty cool, but it was just the coach's film, so there was no audio or anything like that. Seemingly, the audio is lost. Should I put that as "was" lost? I should, because Sir Balmer (I would knight him if I could), has sent over the ISU audio of the game. I have not listened to it yet, but now the goal is to get everything merged together into one package. Could be a heck of a fundraiser, no?

Anyways, all the thanks on this go to Jeff Balmer. He got it done....big time.

Open Mic Night Tonight...Tonight we are having an open mic night to find our new public address announcer for women's basketball. It's a paid gig, with tickets and gear (a nice Nike shirt....like $60) and I've had some interested parties contact me already. We are going start as soon as the women's basketball team ends practice at 8 pm, and no, I won't be like Simon Cowell making comments, but what an opportunity for someone to get involved...and get paid to boot. It's also open to the public, so come out and listen in. The official announcement was posted here.

Where Has Frank Been?I've been finishing up the men's basketball media guide for the last few weeks, so I have not been posting as much here as I tend to normally, but big props to Brad Bugger for all of his posts, which are a highly entertaining read from someone really well versed in Bengal and Big Sky history.

Onto a major amount of links...

Basketball is practicing...yeah!A lot of eyes are on both the men's basketball program, but the women's one as well. Kelvin Ang had an article in the Journal on the Natalie Doma replacement sweepstakes, and he also touched on some other things in his blog. Also, the men's basketball team was picked third by both the coaches and the media...how 'bout them apples?

Why Walk-Ons Shouldn't Work on the Weekends...Jaclyn Hone was originally going to redshirt to keep a commitment to her employer as a restaurant, so give Chad Teichert credit for getting her on the court this year. Kelvin Ang, who I think did almost everything in the paper yesterday (including a horrifically easy Jumble), covered that story as well.

Football SaturdayRemember football? Well, It's been well documented that ISU's last win was against Portland State, and look who is on the schedule for this week....Portland State. However, Dan Thompson has his Big Sky Notebook today, and John Smithers (who?) of the Missoulian has his Big Sky Notebook up as well, and suffice to say, John isn't getting any Christmas cards from me. Charles Pulliam of the Montana student paper the Kaimin previews the upcoming week, and he proves that you can live in Missoula and not take potshots at ISU. Thank you Chuck!

Big Soccer WeekendThe online link isn't up, but the Bengals have a big game today against Portland State, the first place team in the Big Sky. The Bengals have not won a game since August, but they've been right there for most of the season, and they still can make the Big Sky Tournament, but it won't be easy. The game is at 4:00 pm at Davis Field, and it will be on the radio on KISU 91.1 FM.

If you need a Chuckle...I was interviewed by Jason Marsteller for the SIDShow podcast ... my portion is a painfully long 31 minutes, so book some time out. The media relations folks have a message board (like the BengalDen, but we all use our own names), and the SIDShow is a part of that.

Ross Cunningham Will Just Die...It's true, Idaho State is partnering with the Montana schools for an energy degree. But not those two Montana schools...it's Montana State - Billings, MSU-Great Falls College of Technology and MSU-Northern. And I might as well admit it here now...Ross's picture of him waving that big giant flag on the court after the Montana win in the tournament....yeah, that made the media guide.

If I can get it done, I plan on taking a lot of pictures from this road trip for you folks...while putting together the cover for the basketball guide. Stuff never ends sometimes....

4 comments:

Frank: Is the ISU audio from Larry Eckenrode's call or from UCLA's radio announcer (I believe his name was Fred Hessler). I actually have the last 2 minutes of the game on audio from both Eckenrode's call and Hessler's. Get the fundraiser going, I will buy at least two.

Great news, Frank! I'll definitely order a copy or two. Any chance of the I-AA championship game made available for the future? My memory isn't what it used to be, but didn't Keith Jackson provide play-by-play for ABC?